


Sister and Brother

by Zinoviev



Category: Ender's Game - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Author-created worlds, Crossover, Gen, Imparted Wisdom, Philotic Web, Siblings, The Force
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28847688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zinoviev/pseuds/Zinoviev
Summary: Valentine and Ender Wiggin scour the galaxy for a world suitable to the Hive Queen. But one day, by chance of fate, they find themselves in a different galaxy entirely, a Galaxy Far, Far Away.Leia and Luke Skywalker greet them as friends, as mysteries. Soon, the two pairs of siblings will find they have much to learn from each other.Behold, the Ender's Game/Star Wars crossover nobody asked for.
Relationships: Ender Wiggin & Valentine Wiggin, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker
Kudos: 7





	Sister and Brother

**Author's Note:**

> I have recently rekindled my love for the Ender's Game universe. In one of my more inspired moments, I wondered what might happen if Ender and Valentine, my favorite characters, met my other favorite characters: Luke and Leia? It was not a serious thought; I chuckled to myself. But then I thought about it more seriously. In such a fantastical scenario, could they not learn a great deal from each other? There are so many parallels, antinomies to explore. Leia, the daughter of Alderaan; Ender, the Xenocide. I hope this story can inspire some thought, perhaps add some contour to these wonderful characters whom I cherish. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Medina was a dry planet.

Sun-baked pastures and rolling hills undulated for miles. A powerful river split the countryside in two. Known colloquially as the Star, as in the Star and Crescent of Islam, it was as glorious as the Nile back on the first world. It was the aorta of this Arabic colony, which, by logical conclusion, was itself the Crescent. When he first arrived with his sister three months ago, the itinerant Speaker for the Dead insisted upon taking a boat down the stream rather than the private flight generously offered by the president of the university, the Caliphate Institute of Medina.

Beauty was ephemeral. Of all the people to know such a thing, the Speaker for the Dead was certainly one of them. He was physically thirty years old, but his memories stretched back thousands of years. He and his sister hopped from planet to planet, defying time, that fickle foe of humans for, pardon the irony, time immemorial. Yet knowing this, he still appreciated it; the power of the river, the gentle slope of the hills. He arrived on Medina under the guise of speaking for a passed man, the former governor of the colony, supposedly a descendent of the great Caliph Alai. Out of loyalty, and no lack of nostalgic longing, for his old friend from Battle School, the Speaker for the Dead came to Medina. But that was but a secondary objective. As with all the other worlds he had visited, he came to Medina with a specific purpose in mind.

"What do you think?" asked Valentine, his sister, as they travelled down the river Star.

"No," said Ender, sighing. "It won't do."

Wrapped in linen, tucked in the rucksack around his arm, was the queen egg. Without words, they spoke to each other, or rather, understood each other. The two of them knew when they arrived on Medina that this world would not do. It was too dry for the queen, but that was but a mere inconvenience. She could live wherever humans did, after all. The real reason was the people. The queen and Ender both knew, or perhaps did not know, but _felt,_ that these people, hospitable as they were, would not accept the queen or her children. These were holy people. Religion, evanescent in the galaxy at large, remained a force on Medina. They believed in the supremacy, the elect-nature of the human race. It was a foolish belief. Were things to have gone slightly differently, this world might not be populated by humans, but by Formics. But things hadn't gone differently. Ender the Xenocide had made sure of that.

Now Ender was ready to go. He stood on the banks of the Star, watching the glinting water. He felt a profound exhaustion. The queen under his arm was not disappointed in him, he could sense as much, but he was disappointed in himself. He had promised to deliver her to a new world where her species could be reborn. Yet that was thousands of years ago, and still, the queen traveled under his arm, unhatched, entirely at his mercy.

He felt a stirring. The queen felt it too. Ender looked beyond the river, to the horizon. There were two stars rather than one; Medina orbited a binary system. Sweat tickled his brow. He felt short for breath.

"Ender?"

Valentine arrived by his side. She, as always, had taken longer to pack. Not that either of them had much to pack – they kept light, never staying in a world for longer than six months. But even so, Valentine did not live in abnegation like he did; she at least kept some belongings, scant as they may be.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Squinting, Ender looked at her. "I don't know," he said. "I feel something."

"The queen?" said Valentine. "Is she trying to speak to you?"

"I don't think so," said Ender. "This is something else." He stared at the horizon a moment longer. "Will you come with me?" he asked.

"You know I always will," said Valentine. "But where are we going?"

"I have no idea."

"Not the space port, I presume."

"Certainly not."

Ender took Valentine's suitcase from her and headed back into the university campus. He dropped off their luggage. The queen egg he kept with him, however. He rarely felt comfortable to leave her out of sight. There was a bridge which would take them over the Star onto the west bank. They crossed it and continued onward, away from the campus, out of town, through bucolic pastures.

"You know, Ender," said Valentine, several hours later, "this is fun and all, but how much longer are we going to be walking? I'm not as young as I once was."

"No," said Ender. "You're not."

"Way to rub it in," said Valentine.

"Sorry, Val," said Ender jokingly. "But you know as well as I do that we're thousands of years old."

"No we aren't," said Valentine. "And even if we were, you still act like a little brother."

"That's because I am," said Ender. "Forever and always."

Valentine harrumphed.

They continued for an hour longer. The Wiggin siblings were drenched in sweat, the setting suns baring down on them with unrelenting intensity. Ender's arms and legs ached. He set the queen egg down by the side of the road and he and Valentine collapsed.

"Sometimes I ask myself," said Valentine, "why I follow you everywhere."

"I ask myself that all the time," said Ender.

They spoke lightly, but there was a heaviness in their hearts. Everyone they ever knew from their time was dead. Their parents, Theresa and John Paul. Their brother Peter. Colonel Graff. Mazer Rackham. All of Ender's jeesh from Battle School. They were all dead. Delegated to the history books which Valentine herself wrote.

"You didn't have to come with me," said Ender, seriously this time.

Valentine shook her head. "How many times must we have this conversation, Ender? I wanted to come with you."

"Past tense."

"What?"

"You wanted. Do you not anymore?"

"Ender –"

"You're stuck with me now. There's no one else. Do you regret coming with me?"

"No, Ender," said Valentine. "Of course not."

Ender looked at the queen egg. He placed a hand on its linen wrapping. "I have regrets," he said. "That's all I have, really."

"That's the past, Ender," said Valentine.

"Sometimes I wonder what might have happened," said Ender, "had you not convinced me to go with Graff to Eros that day in Greensboro."

"Yes," said Valentine tiredly. "I think about that too."

"We wouldn't be here, that's for sure."

"We would be dead."

"Long, long ago."

The Wiggins fell silent. Valentine rested her head against his shoulder.

"I don't regret it," she said. "You're my best friend in the world."

"And you're mine."

On the side of the road, the suns dipping beneath the horizon, Demosthenes and the Xenocide, like two vagabonds, drifted mercifully to sleep.

And when they woke, Medina was gone. The two suns melded into one. The golden pastures transformed into verdant jungle, the dry air became humid. Birds chirped and sang; the bleating of sheep were now a distant memory. And the queen, in her own way, spoke to him.

_This is it, Ender Wiggin. This is it._

Δ Δ Δ

Beneath the bright sun of Yal Mor, Leia Organa meditated.

She tried, at least. She had never been able to get very good at it. Luke insisted she wasn't patient enough. Leia insisted she didn't have time to be patient.

She really didn't. Accepting Luke's offer to train as a Jedi had been an exciting prospect at first, but now Leia realized she could only take on so many obligations. First and foremost, she was a senator in the New Republic. Under no circumstance would she resign that position. Secondly – and as she realized the order in which she had put it, Leia winced at herself – she was a mother.

A pretty bad mother, it seemed.

It wasn't that she didn't love her son. Of course she did. Wholly and truly. But it was exhausting. The weight of the galaxy was on her shoulders, and he was just one more impossible burden to manage. Han was there to help, sure, but he struggled at times with being a father. She knew he hadn't wanted to have a child so soon after they were married. But Leia had forced his hand. She thought about it practically. If ever there was a time for her to have a child, it was right after the war when things were still in flux and the New Republic not yet organized. In so doing, she was thinking about her career first, her family second.

"Leia," Luke said sternly. "You're not focusing."

Leia sighed. How did he _always_ know? It was uncanny.

"But Luke," she said, "it's so hot out!"

"So?"

"I'm tired."

"You said that yesterday."

"Because it was true."

Luke frowned. "If you're not going to take this seriously –"

"I am!" Leia cut in. "I swear, I am. Today is just… hot."

"It's always hot, Leia. This is a jungle planet."

"Then maybe we should go to Hoth," Leia said, not entirely facetious. Icy cold Hoth sounded pretty good to her right about now.

Luke wiped the sweat from his brow. "I trained on Dagobah," he said. "If ever there was a more miserable place to train, I have yet to find it."

"Pity poor you."

"You're grouchy," Luke said.

"You're bossy," Leia said.

Luke groaned. "All right, how about this. Five more minutes, then we can break."

"Deal," Leia said.

She closed her eyes.

"Now," Luke said, "let yourself go."

It was vague instruction, bordering on meaningless. But that was Luke's style. At first, it infuriated her. But she came to realize that that was her own shortcoming, not Luke's. She wanted a precise pedagogy, for everything to be explained clearly so that Leia could master it quickly then be back on her way. But that was not how it worked. She had to look within herself. It would take time. It would take introspection.

In that sense, she actually enjoyed Jedi training. It was slow, time-consuming work. But it was peaceful. The stress ebbed away, the strain on her shoulders lightened. She and Luke were all alone in this jungle, just her and her brother, her best friend.

It wasn't so bad. Not at all. In and of itself, Jedi training was wonderful. It was only when she placed it in relation to the rest of her life did she begin to feel stressed again. And so she wouldn't do that, not right now. She did as Luke said. She let go.

Into the Force, she drifted, like a petal. Leia had groaned at the metaphor when Luke first shared it, but now she could see what he meant. The Force was vast, limitless. She was but one pinprick of light in that colossal ocean. It was hard not to feel insignificant. But in so feeling, she was also significant. Quite the antinomy. Paradoxical, yet profound.

Because what Luke taught her was that while we may be small, a mere stitch in the fabric, we are all part of the tapestry of the Force, of life itself. So we are small, but we are large. We are weak, but we are powerful. We are alone, but we are not.

And today, that was more true than either of them realized. She felt something, a disturbance, as Luke so often called it. Leia braced herself. The Force around her was rippling, gusting. She felt afraid, excited.

"Luke," she said, gasping.

"I sense it, too," he said.

She opened her eyes. Luke was still in meditation, deep in concentration.

"Something is calling to us," he said.

Leia heard a snap in the distance. "Luke!" she said, jumping to her feet.

Luke opened his eyes calmly. "Do not fear," he said. "They are friends."

"How do you know?"

"I don't," Luke said. "But I would prefer them to be." He stood up. Despite his assurance, his hand hovered over his lightsaber. Leia drew her own, but did not activate it.

"Who are they?" Leia asked.

"I don't know," Luke said.

"Where are they?"

"I don't know that, either."

"You're a Jedi," Leia said. "Aren't you supposed to know stuff like that?"

Luke chuckled.

Another snap. Leia's finger inched to the trigger of her lightsaber. She heard approaching footsteps. Someone was bushwhacking through the jungle. Multiple someones, by the sound of it.

"Who goes there?" Luke called, an orotund voice free from fear.

Two figures emerged from the bush. First was a man, tall and wiry, a rucksack over his shoulder. Behind him was a woman, half a foot shorter, her brown hair tangled and tousled with jungle debris. Neither looked particularly intimidating. They didn't seem to be armed. Leia lowered her weapon a fraction.

"Ho, there," the man said.

"What is this place?" the woman asked.

Leia looked at them more closely. They were young, maybe a few years her and Luke's senior. But despite that, she sensed a supreme oldness about them. In their tired expressions, and in their wise yet weary eyes.

"You don't know where you are?" Luke said.

"No," the man said. "We're no longer on Medina, I take it?"

"Medina?" Leia said. "What's that?"

"I'll take that as confirmation," the man said, smiling wryly. He seemed wholly unconcerned about his predicament. The woman at his side was less insouciant.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" she said.

"Not at all," the man said. "How could I possibly have?"

"Why don't you sit down," Luke said. "I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. This is my sister Leia."

The pair traded looks, shrugged. "Very well," the man said. "I am Andrew."

"And I am Valentine," the woman said. "His sister."

Leia frowned. The lack of surname was conspicuous. They were hiding something, clearly.

"Tell me," Luke said once they were all seated, he and Leia facing off their mysterious visitors in the middle of the clearing, "where do you come from?"

Valentine smiled. Andrew did not. "That's a good question," the sister said. "Most recently, we are from Medina."

"I've never heard of that planet," Leia said. Which was odd, of course. Leia prided herself on her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the galaxy's systems. "Is it in the Outer Rim?"

"I beg your pardon?" Valentine said.

"The Outer Rim?" Leia repeated. They gave her blank looks. "Wild Space, maybe?"

"I'm sorry," Andrew said. "We are not familiar with these terms."

Leia tried to process this. They spoke Basic, didn't they? Or some variation of it. They had some sort of accent which Leia couldn't identify. How could they not know about the Outer Rim or Wild Space?

"Well, what planet is this?" Valentine asked.

"Yal Mor," Luke said.

"I've never heard of it," Andrew said.

"I'm not surprised," Luke said. "It's unpopulated. Not by any advanced civilization, that is."

Andrew's hand drifted to his rucksack. "Then why are you here?" he asked.

"I am training Leia to become a Jedi," Luke said.

They didn't ask, but Leia could tell they had no idea what this meant. So they didn't know about the Jedi, either. That was a bit less surprising, but still strange.

"If there is no civilization," Valentine said, "how can you live here?"

"We won't stay for long," Luke said.

"So you can leave whenever you want? How? There isn't a space port, is there?"

"No," Luke said. "But we don't need one."

"You have your own ship?"

"That we do."

Again, Andrew and Valentine looked at each other. "Either they are extremely wealthy," Andrew said, "or we are no longer in our own time."

Valentine laughed. "We no longer were, anyway."

"Good point," Andrew said.

"Wait just a minute," Leia said. "You're time travelers?"

"Answer me this," Andrew said, without answering himself. "What does the name Wiggin mean to you?"

Now it was Luke and Leia's turn to be confused. "Wiggin?" Leia said. "Uh… nothing."

"That's a relief," Andrew said.

"I don't understand," Luke said. "What does Wiggin mean?"

"It's our name," Andrew said. "I am Ender Wiggin."

"I thought you said your name was Andrew," Leia said.

"It is," Andrew, or rather, Ender, said. "But Ender Wiggin is how the galaxy knows me."

"Not this one, apparently," Valentine said.

"Oh, interesting," Ender said. "Are you thinking –"

"Yes, but how?"

"I have no idea."

Leia wondered if this was how other people felt when she and Luke talked. Ender and Valentine were speaking Basic, yes, but they might as well be on an entirely different frequency from the rest of them.

"Earth," Ender said. "Have you ever heard of it?"

Luke and Leia shook their heads.

"Delightful," Valentine said.

"Fascinating," Ender said.

"Peter Wiggin, maybe?" Valentine said. "The Hegemon?"

"Don't be silly," Ender said. "They don't know our name, remember?"

"Oh, yes," Valentine said. "Well, we can take solace in that. They don't know about Peter either."

"Don't tell me you're still bitter about that?" Ender said.

"Perpetually," Valentine said.

"Slow down," Leia said, for she was beginning to experience whiplash. "If you don't come from our time – "

"It's not that we don't come from this time," Ender said, "although that is of course true. As my sister points out, we come from no time. Not anymore."

Leia could only blink at him. She had no idea what he was on about.

"We must come from another galaxy," Ender said. "That is the only plausible explanation."

"Or maybe we've gone so far in the future that nobody remembers Earth or Wiggins anymore," Valentine said.

"Possible," Ender said. "But I much prefer my explanation." He unstrapped the rucksack from his shoulder. "I suspect, somehow, that you may be able to help me with this." Out of the rucksack, he produced what looked to be an egg. It was about a foot in diameter, pearly white and wrapped delicately in cloth. Ender set in in the dirt between them.

"This is what I was sensing," Luke said. He stretched his hand out to the egg, touched it softly. "What is it?"

"A queen egg," Ender said. "It is the last of its species."

"How so?" Luke asked.

"Her home world was destroyed."

Despite the heat, Leia felt her whole body run cold, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her head.

"I see," Luke said, looking at her grimly.

Ender did not miss this. He looked at her as well, inquisitive.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just need to… go." She stood up. Luke grabbed her arm.

"Leia –"

"Let me go, Luke."

He did so reluctantly. Leia turned her back on the strangers, on the egg, and ran.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Originally, I conceived this story as a oneshot, but I realized I had too much material to cover, so I decided to break it into segments. As such, I imagine this being just two chapters, maybe three. Either way, I hope you enjoyed!


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